Cervical Spine Anatomy

Question 1

Cervical spine’s important job

Answer 1

Supports our head
Directs our vision
Protects the spinal cord (connection or our brain to the rest of the body)

Question 2

Anterior

Answer 2

Front

Question 3

Posterior

Answer 3

Back

Question 4

Vertebra

Answer 4

Bones that make up the spine

Question 5

How many bones make up the spine?

Answer 5

24

Question 6

Vertebra stacked on top of one another are called

Answer 6

the spinal column

Question 7

The body’s main upright support is the

Answer 7

spinal column

Question 8

How many vertebra make up the cervical spine?

Answer 8

7. Often referred to as c1 - c7

Question 9

What does the bottom of the skull connect to?

Answer 9

c1 or atlas

Question 10

Which direction does the cervical spine curve?

Answer 10

Slightly inward

Question 11

Where does the cervical spine end?

Answer 11

Where c7 joins the top of the thoracic spine

Question 12

What sits on top of c1 or atlas?

Answer 12

The base of the skull

Question 13

What forms a hole through the center of the atlas?

Answer 13

Two thick boney arches

Question 14

Why is the opening the largest in the atlas

Answer 14

Because the spinal cord is wider where it first exits the brain

Question 15

Where does the atlas sit?

Answer 15

On top of the c2 also referred to as the axis

Question 16

What is the boney nob on top of the axis called?

Answer 16

the dens. it points up and fits through a hole in the atlas

Question 17

What gives the neck its ability to turn to the left and right?

Answer 17

The special connection between the atlas and axis

Question 18

What is the main part of each cervical vertebra?

Answer 18

A round block of bone called the vertebral body

Question 19

What attaches to the back of the vertebral body?

Answer 19

A bone ring formed by to pedicles that connect to the back of the vertebral body and two lamina that join the pedicles to complete the ring

Question 20

What do the vertebra form when stacked on top of one another?

Answer 20

A hollow tube that surrounds the spinal cord. The inside of this tube is called the spinal canal

Question 21

What do the bone rings provide?

Answer 21

A protective roof that protects the spinal cord

Question 22

What projects posteriorly from the same point where the two lamina bones join together at the back of the spine?

Answer 22

Boney projections called spinous processes. These are what you feel when you rub your fingers up and down the back of your spine

Question 23

What are the two boney knobs that point out to the side from the vertebra?

Answer 23

Transverse Processes

Question 24

What passes through the transverse processes of the cervical spine and is unique to the cervical spine?

Answer 24

Transverse foramen

Question 25

What does the transverse foramen provide?

Answer 25

A passageway for arteries that run up each side of the neck to supply the back of the brain with blood

Question 26

What are between each set of vertebra?

Answer 26

two joints called facet joints

Question 27

What covers the surface of the facet joints?

Answer 27

Articular cartilage, a smooth rubbery material that covers the ends of most joints. It allows the ends of the bones to move together smoothly with minimal friction.

Question 28

What is formed when vertebra are stacked on top of one another?

Answer 28

Neural foramen

Question 29

What leaves through the neural foramen?

Answer 29

A nerve root leaves through this opening. One on the left and one on the right

Question 30

What does the spinal cord travel through?

Answer 30

The spinal cord travels through the spinal canal

Question 31

Where do the nerve roots from the cervical spine go?

Answer 31

The upper extremities, upper body and certain organs

Question 32

What are ligaments?

Answer 32

Strong connective tissues that connect bones to other bones

Question 33

Anterior Longitudinal Ligament

Answer 33

Runs lengthwise down the front of the vertebral bodies

Question 34

Posterior Longitudinal Ligament

Answer 34

Attaches on the back of the vertebral bodies

Question 35

Ligamentum Flavum

Answer 35

a long elastic band that connects to the front surface of each of the lamina bones

Question 36

What are facet joints surrounded by

Answer 36

a joint capsule that is made up of ligaments

Question 37

Intervertebral disc

Answer 37

A special structure in the spine that sits between each pair of vertebra

Question 38

What two parts make up the intervertebral disc?

Answer 38

the nucleus pulposus annulus fibrosis

Question 39

What is the nucleus pulposus

Answer 39

A spongy material that sits in the middle of the intervertebral disc and provides most of the shock absorption for the spine

Question 40

What is the annulus fibrosis?

Answer 40

A series of strong ligamentous rings that surround the pulposus annulus fibrosis that attach to the vertebra above and below the intervertebral disc

Question 41

What is a spinal segment?

Answer 41

Two vertebra separated by an intervertebral disc, two nerve roots, two small facet joints that link each level of the spinal column

Question 42

How does the cervical spine bend and rotate?

Answer 42

The working together of the facet joints and the intervertebral disc. The facet joints slide while the intervertebral disc works like a flexible disc between the two vertebra

Question 43

What is the cervical spine?

Answer 43

A complex machine with an important job to do.

Question 44

How can you understand how problems in the neck can cause pain and disfunction?

Answer 44

By understanding the structure and function